Soft as a Cloud: White Peach and Ginger Cake

After making a delicious peach cake with lemon and thyme, I decided to press on with another peach dessert, Thalia Ho's "White Peach and Ginger Cake." I strongly prefer white peaches over yellow peaches when it comes to eating the fruit out of hand, so I figured this cake would be right up my alley.

 

To make the cake batter, you cream softened butter with sugar until light and fluffy; add eggs, followed by vanilla; alternately add the dry ingredients (flour, almond flour, ground ginger, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) and sour cream; and fold in chopped white peaches. I transferred the batter to a buttered and parchment-lined pan and topped it with streusel (made by cutting cold butter into a mixture of flour, sugar, and salt). I love ginger and particularly crystallized ginger, so I also tossed some chopped crystallized ginger on top of the streusel before putting the cake into the oven.

Even though the recipe calls for an 8-inch round pan, I used a 9-inch round pan that was 3-inches tall. After making a few Thalia Ho cake recipes I now know to always go up a pan size, and I'm very glad that I did so here. As you can see, the cake was quite tall, so even a 9-inch pan that was only 2-inches deep might not have been large enough. 

Because the flesh of the peaches was so pale, the cake cross-section looked pretty monochrome, and I don't think it would be obvious that the cake contained peaches just from looking at it. Unfortunately, the flavor of the peaches was also quite muted -- and I know the peaches were sweet and delicious, as I sampled them before adding them to the cake batter. As much as I love white peaches, I don't think their mild sweetness works as well in baked goods compared to yellow peaches, which have a more assertive flavor that survives the baking process more successfully. I should know this by now. I've noticed the same problem in the past when I've made pies with white peaches (this lattice pie and this one with a crumb topping) and been disappointed with the lack of peach flavor in the end product. 

However, lack of peach flavor aside, this cake was really good. Its most remarkable feature was its downy soft texture. The recipe headnote says that, "To say this is a soft cake would be an understatement. The crumb has a cloud-fleece quality, sort of like fairy floss..." She's not exaggerating. I also liked the streusel and thought the crystallized ginger addition worked out great, helping reinforce the ginger flavor in the cake and adding some nice texture.

Joanne Chang has a recipe for a Ginger-Peach Crumb Cake in Pastry Love that is quite similar to this cake. Ho's cake wins the texture contest, hands down. But I think that Chang's cake has a far superior crumb topping. Ho's streusel is stripped down to the bare essentials. Chang's crumb topping includes cinnamon, cloves, ground ginger, and pecans, and it is super crunchy and packed with flavor. I give Chang the edge overall -- her cake is just more flavorful on all fronts. But the soft texture of Ho's cake is the stuff cake dreams are made of.

 

Recipe: "White Peach and Ginger Cake" from Wild Sweetness by Thalia Ho. 

Previous Posts:

• "Ginger is Just Peachy: Ginger-Peach Crumb Cake," October 18, 2020.
• "Good as Gold: Peach Poundcake," September 24, 2020.
• "Juicy Fruit for the Win: BraveTart Jammy Fruit Bars,"September 24, 2019.
  
• "Four Peaches Can Make a Pie: Lattice-Top Peach Pie," September 18, 2019.
• "Baked Sunday Mornings: Peaches and Dream Pie," July 17, 2011.